


Death and all her friends

by Agnidivya



Category: Bleach
Genre: A reimagining of Bleach with Rukia as the protagonist, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Trauma, Emotional support Ichigo, Fights between siblings of the bloody variety, Forgiveness, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Ichigo does not become a soul reaper, Psychological Trauma, Rebellion against corrupt administrative systems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28832277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agnidivya/pseuds/Agnidivya
Summary: What we do not understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control...we attack.When faced with the overwhelming consequences of our fears and our ignorance, what should we do?
Relationships: Abarai Renji & Kuchiki Rukia, Inoue Orihime & Kuchiki Rukia, Ishida Uryuu & Kuchiki Rukia, Kuchiki Byakuya & Kuchiki Rukia, Kuchiki Rukia & Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Rukia & Sado "Chad" Yasutora, Kuchiki Rukia & Sode no Shirayuki, Kuchiki Rukia & Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue - Those who look at the moon

**Author's Note:**

> I wish Kubo had kept Rukia as the main character of the series. He is one of the very few male story-tellers who have no problem giving his female characters proper personalities.
> 
> Anywho, this is a retelling of Bleach with Rukia as the MC.

_The moon looks lonely_ , he thought as he looked up at the gleaming orb in the sky. The white light it provided seemed to perfectly complement the lowering temperature in this region. His lips turned up at the corners against his will.

He had been asked to investigate the strange temperature phenomenon after all.

This deep in the Inuzuri district, no one was truly sleeping at night. Every second was a struggle for the inhabitants here. A pitiful existence, but that was the way of the world they lived in.

The buildings here were run down, no more than a storey tall. This gave him a good bird’s eye view of the world around him as he ran and hopped across the rooftops.

But it wasn’t his sight that he was following.

No, he had sensed the random reiatsu spikes that were followed by voids. These were followed by the temperature dropping quickly. Right now, the temperature had dropped to about 10°C. It was already fatal for most. He needed to track down the source quickly.

It took him a while, but he was able to pinpoint the source to an alley behind a few ramshackle huts.

He stepped slowly into the darkness, his hand over his Zanpakutō. It was silent, except for the rustle of leaves and clothes in the wind.

Which is probably why he heard the quiet whimper.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he stepped closer to the source of the sound.

It was a bundle of pink cloth that was squirming on the ground. He crouched down to take a better look when the cloth shifted and out popped a tiny face with a mop of black hair on top of its head. Its mouth opened in another quiet cry and the air froze over.

“What the…?” he exclaimed, completely caught off guard.

The infant swaddled in the cloth cracked an eye open. In the darkness of the night, it glowed a rich violet. A tiny pink hand wriggled out of the blanket and reached out to him.

Against his better judgment, he reached out to touch the finger…

… and reared back to see the tip of his numb finger covered in hoar frost.

Not just that, but there had been a desperate visceral pull against his reiryoku.

He looked at the babe again. It looked a bit gaunt and exhausted. _It’s starving,_ he realized, _It’s pulling in reiryoku to survive._

This poor thing should have been dead by now, having been obviously abandoned even after dying so young. Yet, here it was, not only strong enough to manifest its reiatsu, but also manifest it into a conceptual ability.

He reached out for the bundle again, this time careful to not touch skin. As he assumed, the pull was significantly lower without the skin contact.

The infant gurgled in protest, reaching out with tiny hands and wriggling fingers, but he just held it up until it was eye-level with him.

“Well, this is quite the conundrum you have left me with”, he said jovially.

It was then that he noticed the shape of the dirt smear on the cloth. ‘Rukia’ it said in katakana.

*****

_“In a playground covered in snow, adorned by a sea of white grass, with frosted over slides and swings, stood a pale white tree. Cradled under its frozen boughs, she woke up with white ice crystals adorning her skin. She looked around and smiled. The frost became her jewels, the snow her silk and the playground her kingdom. And when she looked up, the moonlight shone down on a single silver bell tinkling from where it hung on a white ribbon from a leafless white branch. She looked up and smiled at the moon, her Lady.”_

*****

The shadows spread across the white sand, like ink on black paper, forever seeking that which cannot be found within themselves. Some small drops of the shadows reached out when they saw a spark of light. It had been a long time since they had seen something like it.

And through the tear between worlds they flowed, until they were falling, like rain from clouds, and crashing, like fallen stars.

And where it had been empty and silent before, now the expanse before them was filled with sights and sounds and scents that battered against their minds and brought out a hunger from deep within them.

And so they looked to the light in the sky and roared.

The moon shone its light down to the town below as a black butterfly fluttered up to a lithe figure silhouetted against it. “I sense strong reiatsu close by”, the figure stated as she jumped off the light pole and took off into the heart of the city.

*****

His hands came to a stop in its motion of moving the pen across the paper. To anyone who didn’t know who he was, he would be staring at the paper he was pressing his pen down on. However, his senses were reaching out to perceive things far beyond the scope of a normal human.

“Well now”, he said with a wry smile as his straw blond hair curtained his eyes, “There’s a presence I haven’t sensed in a long time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my younger years, I did not understand narratives and tropes as well as I did. Now, I can confidently say that while Bleach wasn't a bad show, it was wasted potential. There was something unique and mature about the setting of this manga when it first came out.
> 
> As for why it took a nose dive, I cannot say. While people say that Tite Kubo started making up the story as he went, I disagree. We can clearly see that Kubo had a end goal in mind. However, somewhere along the way, due to a number of reasons, the story and the characters got away from him. And that is something I can understand.
> 
> That said, I write because it is a mechanism that helps me cope with the world around me. And this project is a writing experiment of sorts. So feedback will be very appreciated!!


	2. Prologue - The whims of fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, before we begin, I think I need to explain the inspiration for this fic.
> 
> But...
> 
> Explanations are not my thing.
> 
> So here is the [tumblr post](https://gunnerpalace.tumblr.com/post/141420289902/rukias-powers-dont-have-to-do-with-ice) instead.

Rukia could understand why there was a permanent station in this town with Shinigami rotating through it every few months. The unusual level of reishi here seemed to attract Hollows like bees to flowers.

She jumped down in front of the hollow that tried to snatch up the Whole spirit of a young girl and slashed it across the face. The Hollow reared back with a roar. She took this chance to leap up and bring Sode no Shirayuki down in a slash that split the mask in half. The Hollow disintegrated as its spirit was purified.

She heard a noise of fear and awe behind her. She took a glance back and saw an orange-haired young man staring at the place where the Hollow once stood. He must have been shocked at the physical devastation left behind, especially since he probably wasn’t able to see what caused it.

She turned away quickly trying to sense the other roar she had heard.

She didn’t see the blond haired man in a striped green and white bucket hat observing her silently from the shadows.

*****

The petite shinigami resisted the urge to kick the nearest wall, knowing exactly how painful it would be to her foot. She had spent the better part of the day trying to get the second Hollow before it could cause any more damage.

But this one was a fair bit smarter than most Hollows and took advantage of its access across planes to escape into the Garganta every time she closed in. And a little while later it would appear in another part of the town.

And she was getting really sick of the game of tag being played.

Taking in a deep breath, she focused on the feeling of rage and grief that saturated the air, hoping it would give her a clue about where the Hollow would appear next. Once she caught sight of the tainted spirit ribbon she followed it, the Jigokuchō she was using leading the way.

It took her to a quieter part of the town, where the building were smaller and more compact, more homely. It reminded her of the barracks of the Gotei 13. She followed the butterfly to open window.

Strange, she could sense the Hollow-like reiatsu, so tainted with its grief. But there really was no Hollow there, just a young boy getting ready for bed.

Perhaps it would appear there.

“Its getting closer”, she told herself, even as the boy yelled the way most adolescents were wont to do, “I can feel it—“

A kick to her back sent her crashing face-first into the floor and interrupted all her thoughts.

 _What?_ she thought, utterly dumfounded.

She turned to see the teenager yelling and glaring at her…

Wait, yelling and glaring at her?

He could see her?!

*****

He was yelling again, did he not have any consideration for his sleeping family. He then sure deserves more than the marks on his face is this is how he treated his little sisters.

“What is that?” he suddenly asked quietly.

The contrast of the tone of his voice now to just a few seconds ago was jarring. “One thing we do know is that there is still a second Hollow prowling nearby”, she spoke more to herself than to him.

“Then what the hell are you waiting for? Go out and kill it” he almost growled at her, which all things considered was fair.

“I would, but I can’t seem to detect its location”, she replied honestly, “Usually I don’t have no trouble finding a Hollow that’s close by. But here it’s like my senses are being jammed by some powerful force.”

“What are you, deaf?” the boy interrupted her, “There’s something huge howling out there! That sound has to be a Hollow!”

“Something howling? What do you mean?” she asked in disbelief. He could hear something that she couldn’t. Was he…

The bone-chilling howl shocked her out of her thoughts. “Now I hear it. Definitely a Hollow.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you”, the boy growled at her even as she tried to assess the direction the sound was coming from and the quickest way she could leave the building to intercept the Hollow.

However, all that came to a halt at the cry of a young girl who appeared at the door of a room. She shared a lot of features with the boy in the room, his little sister.

Rukia leapt into action. There was no time for anything else.

*****

 _That stupid self-sacrificial fool!_ she thought with tremendous feeling as her body moved on instinct to place her in the path of the Hollow.

That stupid child had let his emotions take over and fought to get his sister back by trying to brawl with the Hollow. It was noble and admirable and incredibly idiotic since he kept getting in her way. And then he had the audacity to offer himself as food in the hopes of deterring the mindless beast!

Rukia used Sode no Shirayuki as a lever to pry open the jaws clamped down on her shoulder, dislodging quite a few of the blunt teeth and creating a wound that gushed blood everywhere. It was pity that it wasn’t enough to cut through the mask.

She fell to her knees and crashed to the ground. Her shoulder burned. She could feel the blood pooling under her, every drop taking a part of her strength with it.

“Shinigami”, the boy called out to her.

She could hear the fear in his voice and was reminded of the fact that despite his brash attitude and boldness when facing down the Hollow, he was still a human child a tenth her age.

 _If only I had been stronger,_ she thought bitterly as she grasped for breath, _If only I had been faster._

“You are a fool. How could you have possibly have thought you were any match for a Hollow?” she managed to bite out and wondered if the words were meant for him or for herself.

She managed to get a hand under her and this time she forced the pain back to focus on the boy, “Did you really think that everything would be over if you gave him your soul? One soul doesn’t satisfy them for long.” She was able to raise her head up, even as she struggled to push her body off the ground, “If you don’t stop interfering, we are all going to end up as its food.”

She was finally able to push herself up even as the Hollow howled in fury and glared down at them. But everything still burned and there was a weakness she had to admit.

“I’m too injured to fight. Do you want to save your family?” She had managed to crawl to the wall and use it to prop herself up.

“Of course I do”, the boy answered, as if the answer was too obvious for the question to even be asked, “If there is a way, then tell me how.” She had to resist the urge to smile at him.

 _You fool_ , she thought with a hint of admiration, _You may come to regret what I am about to put you through._

Her grip on Sode no Shirayuki tightened. She could feel her dear companion grow quiet and resigned. _I’m sorry Shirayuki._

“It will only be temporary, but…” she raised her Zanpakutō so the blade was pointing at the boy, “You must become a Shinigami yourself.”

She could see the shock on his face and opened her mouth to quickly explain.

“That’s noble of you, but there really is no need for that”, a voice called out into the night.

Before she could comprehend that it was a completely new person who had spoken, a bolt of red light flew past both her and the boy and struck the Hollow in the mask. The mask disintegrated on impact and the Hollow body melted into the shadows as the corrupted soul passed on.

And the world suddenly fell silent.

“What the hell?” the boy asked quietly, echoing her sentiments at the moment.

The silence was soon broken by the clacks of geta-clad feet hitting the ground. And out of the darkness, like a wraith taking shape, appeared a blond-haired man dressed in what appeared to be a cross between a Shinigami’s shihakusho and the living world’s jinbei with a dark green haori on top. He wore a frankly atrocious striped green hat over his head and hid half of his face behind his fan.

But what caught her attention was the familiar gray eyes that were focused on her with an intensity she couldn’t comprehend.

“Who the hell are you?” the boy yelled at the newcomer.

In the blink of an eye, the man was standing before the orange-head. “That’s something you don’t need to worry about, Kurosaki-kun”, he said jovially.

“What? How do you know my—“

“Good night, Kurosaki-kun”, the man interrupted and tapped the boys forehead with the point of his cane

The boy crumpled to the ground.

“What are you doing?” she managed to find the energy to yell, though it came out as a breathy wheeze instead. She froze when she found herself under the full brunt of the gray gaze. A chill swept through her as the man slowly stepped up to her, the clacking of his geta echoing through the night. When he was close enough, he whipped his fan closed to reveal a face sporting a wide grin.

“Now then, Shinigami-san, what am I to do with you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well then, there you have it. Canon divergence.
> 
> * spends a lot of time grumbling about Urahara's flair for the dramatic making life a hundred times tougher... *


	3. Prologue - The world moves on

It was like a dream. She looked down at her right hand, looked at all the marks and grooves and callouses and scars that littered her hand. She then flexed her fingers, feeling every bone and muscle move.

It all felt like a dream.

There were so many thoughts running simultaneously through her mind that she didn’t know where one ended and another began. She knew that in a few minutes she would feel a heavy pit in her stomach and a sort of fear and regret like no other. But at the moment, all she felt was numb.

“Lost in thought, huh?” spoke a voice with a soothing timbre.

It snapped her out of her thoughts and made her look up. But there was no one there.

Seated on the porch facing the open sandy yard she looked to her left and to the right. “Who’s there?” she asked even as she tried to sense any reiatsu in the area.

That was when her senses picked up something small and compact, yet strong.

She looked down and her eyes grew wide.

“What’s the matter?” the black cat stated with what seemed to be the equivalent of a smirk, “Cat got your tongue?”

She kept looking down at the talking cat.

A talking cat.

A talking cat…

“Neko-chan!” she squealed and pulled the cat into her arms, “So cute!”

“Hey, what the— What do you think you’re doing?” the cat snarled as it struggled with all its might to get out of the tight grip the petite girl had on its body.

Of course, the girl remained oblivious to it all. “Oh, you’re so cute!” she squealed again, “You’re the cutest and you can talk and you are so fluffy!” She buried her face in the black fur.

The cat kept struggling as the grip on its small body kept getting tighter. “Hey, let go!” it yelled as it bit and clawed at the arms encasing it. But the girl didn’t move, she just tanked every blow and ignored every injury, even if it was bleeding.

“Help!” the cat yowled, “HELP! Get this girl off me!”

“What’s with all the noise?” the blond shopkeeper said around a yawn as he made his way to the porch.

The giant man who was busy stacking the wares looked up. “Oh, it seems like Yoruichi-san made a new friend”, the man stated before going back to his work.

The blond man blinked at the giant and then turned to look at the cat being strangled by the small girl. “Oh, I see”, a smile spread across his face, “Well, have fun!”

“What?” the cat yowled even as it struggled to slip out of the girl’s death grip, “Tessai, Kisuke, get back here! GET THIS BRAT OFF ME!”

*****

“GOOOO—“

Isshin didn’t even get a chance to greet his beloved son a good morning before a punch sent him tumbling down the stairs and rolling off down the hallway like a bowling ball.

“Yuzu! Karin!” Ichigo yelled as he thundered down the stairs in hyper-panicked-big-brother-mode, “Are you girls okay? Yuzu! Karin!”

“What’s wrong Ichi-nii?” Yuzu asked, worried by the blind fear on her brother’s face.

“Yeah, you haven’t blown a blood vessel since a month ago. What gives?” Karin added her two cents.

He looked down at both of them standing at the bottom of the stairs and his eyes softened with relief. “You’re both okay”, he breathed out as he crushed them both in a hug, “It was just a bad dream”, he whispered reverently into their hair, “Last night was just a bad dream.”

“FAAAAAAMIIIIIIIIILLLLYYYYYY HUUUU—“

“Shut up, old man!” Ichigo yelled as he kicked his embarrassing father in the solar plexus, “You just ruined the moment!”

“MASAKI!!” his father cried as loudly as he could, “OUR SON IS FINALLY GROWING UP TO BE AN EMOTIONALLY STABLE MAN!” He then proceeded to plaster himself across the gigantic poster of his wife.

And so continued the chaos of the Kurosaki household as the neighbors merely shook their head in dismay.

*****

“ _Why are you helping me?” she had asked as he had finished bandaging her shoulder._

_“Well, you are a Kuchiki, and historically, the family has had good ties with the Shihōin clan, to whom this outpost belongs”, he replied, hiding his smile behind the fan._

_“There has to be something else”, she pressed. There had to be, seeing as he was volunteering so much information without prompting._

_“Well, now that you mention it…”_

_She waited patiently for him to answer even as the wound under the bandages burned._

_But he didn’t, just stared down at her._

_She looked up at him as she waited._

_He looked down at her…_

_Tsukabishi-san sat quietly in the corner._

_She waited. She knew she had to wait. He wanted her to react. This was a game she could play._

_He refused to answer. He just looked at her._

_Tsukabishi-san started sweating in his corner._

_She just barely kept herself from twitching or frowning or even moving as she waited for him to continue._

_He just looked down at her._

_Tsukabishi-san started trembling in his corner._

_She—_

_“Achoo!”_

_All three pairs of eyes suddenly turned to the small girl with pigtails just outside the door. She blinked, looked at the gazes aimed at her until realization slowly dawned on her face. Then she started blushing cutely._

_“I’m sorry…” she barely managed to say with a quiver in her voice._

_There was deafening silence for all of one second._

_Then it was broken by the snap of a paper fan closing._

_“Anyway, as I was saying”, he continued, as if he had never brought the conversation to a dead halt, “We will accept conventional payment for any item purchased or any service rendered with regards to your posting here. However, I understand you have a lot of questions from yesterday?”_

_“Not particularly, no”, she answered. Because really, she may have met a spiritually active human, but it wasn’t really that rare._

_At that the man drooped. “Really, no questions at all…?”_

_The petite shinigami just shook her head._

_The man seemed to droop even more. “Guess I’ll need to rethink my strategy then…” he mumbled to himself._

_Rukia really wanted to hit him, debt of gratitude be damned._

_“Okay then, Kuchiki-san. I have questions for you”, he grinned again, “The very first being why you are so weak despite your tremendous potential.”_

_“What?” she asked in indignation. She was weak, she hadn’t been part of the advanced classes, she had just be pushed into the Gotei 13 by the influence of the Kuchiki family, she wasn’t strong enough to be a seated officer and the only reason she had come this far was because Kaien-dono and Miyako-dono had taken some strange liking to her. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was weak. She could never be strong, not like Renji, not like Kaien-dono, not like Nii-sama._

_“Now, now, don’t look so down, Kuchiki-san”, the man continued, “I can see your potential. You can say that I see these things better than most people.”_

_The thoughts in her head kept whirling. She didn’t understand what he was saying. Her having potential? Who was this man who could say this so openly and so confidently? As if he knew her better than she knew herself?_

_But then again, to learn about your Zanpakutō, you need to learn about yourself._

_And suddenly, the man had bent down at the waist until his nose was just a few inches from hers._

_“So, I, in all my generosity, will train you to reach your potential”, he said and held up his right forefinger, “In return, you will answer any question I may have. Do we have a deal?”_

_She looked at the man’s smiling face, at his sharp grey eyes, so much lighter and colder than her brother’s._

_Could she trust this man?_

_Probably not_

_Did she have the potential he was talking about?_

_Maybe._

_Did she want to see how far she could go?_

_She looked down at her hands, they were trembling on her lap. She could feel the grey eyesboring into her._

_There was something clearly missing here._

_But…_

_Did she want to see how far she could go?_

_Her fingers curled until her hands formed tight fists._

_“We have a deal”, she stated firmly as she met his eyes with her own._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok. I am probably digging myself a deep grave by giving a 3 chapter prologue, but it makes sense in my head!!
> 
> The next chapter will start the next Arc, "Death and the Strawberry".
> 
> Yeah... Ichigo isn't out of Rukia's life yet...


End file.
